All sentient life is connected. The appendages may be different, we may eat different things, and live in different universes, but at the end of the day, we’re all one big family.
It’s time to explore the branches of the multiversal family tree, and today, we present:
(Node 1 Hyperion Earth Year 2024)
Alia, the Hyperion
– Issue 39 – Pomp and Circumstance
“What happened in that other universe?” Ivan asked.
Alia was in the backyard of Clay’s house. She stood in the grass, her head tilted up, as though she was looking up at the sky and waiting for someone to arrive. Clay was shirtless next to Ivan; he wasn’t sure what was happening, but he stood with them since the two cleaned themselves up after returning to the house.
“You saw it, Ivan,” Alia said, never taking her eyes from the sky.
“What y’all see?” Clay asked Ivan.
“That red universe is gray and full of plastic stars…” he tried to explain. “You have to see it,” he said and put his middle finger on Clay’s forehead, then his thumb and pinky at each of his temples. Green energy issued from his fingers and eventually Clay’s eyes were green.
“Did you see that?” he asked Ivan. Clay was seeing the scene in the dead universe.
“See what? The giant ping-pong ball that used to be a star?”
“Nah,” Clay said. “That thread or whatever it is. It moved toward y’all.”
Ivan closed his eyes to spectate the memory with Clay, and he saw what he hadn’t noticed the first time.
“That thread…” Alia started but she seemed to stutter like she was afraid. “it’s mycelium.”
“Mycelium?” Clay asked as the green light dissipated from his eyes.
“From a fungus?” Ivan asked.
They watched Alia nod as she faced away from them.
“That entire universe was consumed by a fungus,” Alia said.
“Did y’all see the fungus?” Clay asked. “It must be a big ass mushroom if it ate a whole universe.”
“I didn’t even see the thread,” Ivan said. He walked to stand closer to Alia. “You saw it, didn’t you? When you touched it. That’s why you had me burn everything.”
“That’s why y’all was naked when y’all got back?” Clay asked.
“It’s not a mushroom,” Alia said. She sounded like she struggled to explain herself. “I don’t know enough about plants or whatever to say exactly what it was, but it’s so big. Those strings that were long enough to stretch across a universe, that ain’t even the tip of the fungus. I think it’s called Une, I don’t know. I think that’s what I heard, but I saw so much of what it’s done and it won’t rest until it’s everywhere. Even here. It wants to consume everything. So I sealed our universe off from the dead one because it is still infected with Une, which I think is another universe’s word for death. Une is death. And I know someone who is close to death in this universe. Maybe he knows about this Une.”
“Who?” Clay asked.
Alia turned to face them for a moment and she smiled.
“My little brother, or maybe he’s my older brother. Do y’all remember Pomp? I guess y’all were busy with Desperation during all that. I don’t really have a brother, but I met the psychopomp of our reality after Darker was resurrected. He’s how I knew the afterlife was disrupted. But I haven’t talked to him since right before the Hyperion. I’m not even sure if he still exists.”
“Psychopomp?” Ivan asked with confusion.
“The thing that takes souls to their final resting place,” Alia explained. “Like a skeleton in a cloak with a scythe, or the angel of death.”
“That’s real?” Clay asked. “And you call that your brother?” He sounded a little offended and Alia hugged them both.
“You guys are my family, but when Pomp came, he made a body that looked like my brother. I can’t think of him as anything else really.”
“And he’s coming here?” Ivan asked. Alia took steps away from them to return to her looking position.
“If he’s still there,” Alia said. “Y’all go inside. I’ll come in when I reach him. I don’t know how long this will take.”
They were both hesitant to leave Alia, but knew that they were useless to help her. Their worry only compounded when they found her in the same spot the following morning, and when she refused to budge for a week. Ivan and Clay were about to drag her into the house when a brown-skinned man with large black wings slowly descended on the backyard.
“Earthling sibling!” Pomp said with enthusiasm. He was shirtless and wore a pair of jeans. “We have much to catch up on. Tell me about the nature of the Hyperion.”
“We’ll get to that,” Alia said and she introduced Ivan and Clay. “Will you take me to Death? I have questions for it.”
Pomp looked surprised. “What business does one such as yourself have with Death?”
“I’m worried, Pomp. Please, you know I wouldn’t be asking if it wasn’t important.”
“Are you sure you want to speak to Death?” Pomp asked cautiously. “Going to it willingly usually results in the forfeit of your life. I can’t guarantee that you will be able to leave alive.”
“We’ll go with her,” Clay said and Ivan agreed.
“Great, more potential victims,” Pomp said sarcastically. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Pomp lifted both his hands and arranged the fingers into specific formations. “This is so easy with Earthling hands. It’s just the right number of digits.” As he changed the formation of his fingers, silver-white energy sparked from his hands and formed into a bolt that cut a doorway in existence. Pomp pushed at the scene of Clay’s backyard that was inscribed inside of the silver-white energy and it swung open to darkness.
“Shall we?” he asked and then walked though. Alia, Ivan and Clay followed.
They moved through darkness and soon there was a flicker of light in the distance that got bigger as they approached. They eventually arrived at a doorway of white light that they passed through and into the realm of light that Alia had traveled to before. They were inside of a castle made of white stone and a figure of black sat on a throne.
“Owuo,” Pomp said and bowed before the throne. “I have honored guests who seek your wisdom.”
“I have no wisdom for the living,” Owuo said and descended his high throne. “Under any other circumstance, you three would belong to me.” He looked at Alia. “But you are the Hyperion. Why have you come here.”
“Who or what is Une?” Alia asked and when Owuo heard it, his human-looking eyes turned black.
“That name is whispered across existences,” Owuo said after a moment. “There is another version of me who knows. I will arrange a meeting. And know, Earthlings, that your eyes are now mine. I will see everything you see.”
Owuo fanned the fingers of his left hand and purple magic cascaded off to create another doorway in space..
“Follow the tunnel to the end. Good luck, Hyperion.”
Alia didn’t hesitate to enter the dark doorway, and Clay and Ivan were close behind.
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